Background: Coronary artery disease remains the main cause of death despite several preventive programs. Epicardial adipose tissue is a visceral fat depot of the heart located along the large coronary arteries and on the surface of ventricles and apex. Intima media thickness is commonly recognized as the initial stage in the development of atherosclerosis. The development of ultrasound machines, advances in echocardiographic devices and high resolution transducers facilitate comprehensive analysis of epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT).
Aim: To investigate the relationship of echocardiographic epicardial fat thickness (EFT) and carotid –intima media thickness (C-IMT) with the severity of coronary artery disease.
Methods: A cross sectional multicenter diagnostic accuracy study carried out at Ibn Al-Nafis Cardiovascular Hospital, Ibn Al- Bitar Cardiology Center and Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital –Iraqi Center for Cardiology during the period between October 2016 and May 2017 assessing. History regarding demographic data and risk factors was taken. Two dimensional transthoracic echocardiographic measurements were done. EFT was measured from parasternal long axis view perpendicular to the right ventricular free wall. C-IMT was measured according to that recommended by the American society of echocardiography (ASE).
Results: The current study demonstrated that the EFT has a direct and significant correlation with the number of involved vessels (P value ˂ 0.001, r= 0.770). The validity of EFT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.984, cut point > 8mm, sensitivity=92.9%, specificity= 93.3%). There is inverse and significant correlation between ejection fraction (EF) and three vessels disease (P value ˂ 0.001, r= -0.507). Also there is a direct and significant correlation between C-IMT and severity of CAD. ROC analysis for validity of C-IMT to discriminate between multiple vessels disease and no vessel involvement is excellent (AUC= 0.961, cut point > 1.04mm, sensitivity=92.9%. specificity=86.7%). C-IMT is fair to discriminate between single vessel disease and no vessel involvement (AUC=0.738, cut point ˃ 0.84mm, sensitivity 100%), so if correlated with age, C-IMT above 0.84 can be used as a cut off point for the prediction of CAD. Finally, EFT and C-IMT are more likely to reflect severity of CAD than their ratio.
Conclusions: C-IMT and EFT are simple and reproducible parameters that can be used as a screening tool for the presence and severity of CAD especially before symptoms appearance in high risk patients
The parameter and system reliability in stress-strength model are estimated in this paper when the system contains several parallel components that have strengths subjects to common stress in case when the stress and strengths follow Generalized Inverse Rayleigh distribution by using different Bayesian estimation methods. Monte Carlo simulation introduced to compare among the proposal methods based on the Mean squared Error criteria.
This article aims to determine the time-dependent heat coefficient together with the temperature solution for a type of semi-linear time-fractional inverse source problem by applying a method based on the finite difference scheme and Tikhonov regularization. An unconditionally stable implicit finite difference scheme is used as a direct (forward) solver. While by the MATLAB routine lsqnonlin from the optimization toolbox, the inverse problem is reformulated as nonlinear least square minimization and solved efficiently. Since the problem is generally incorrect or ill-posed that means any error inclusion in the input data will produce a large error in the output data. Therefore, the Tikhonov regularization technique is applie
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to examine absorbance for the removal of the Red Congo using wheat husk as a biological pesticide. Several experiments have been conducted with the aim of configuring breakthrough data in a fluidized bed reactor. The minimum fluidized velocities of the bed were found to be 0.031 mm/s for mish sizes of (250) µm diameter with study the mass transfer be calculated KL values. The results showed a well-fitting with the experimental data. Different operating conditions were selected: bed height (2, 5 and 10) cm, flow rate (90, 100and 120) ml/sec and particle diameter (250, 600, 1000) µm. The breakthrough curves were plotted for Congo Red, Values showed that the lower the bed, the lower the number of ad
... Show MoreBackground: Pleomorphic adenoma of the minor salivary gland is a rare benign tumor. It commonly occurs in the hard and soft palates. Treatment by surgical excision achieved success in improving the patient’s health. Objective: To evaluate the recurrence rate after surgical treatment of pleomorphic adenoma in minor salivary glands. Methods: This retrospective study included patients who attended the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit in Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital, Baghdad, from 2019 to 2021, complaining of soft tissue lumps involving the soft and hard palate, buccal mucosa, and upper lip. After the provisional diagnosis of these lesions, a total surgical excision of the tumor with a safe margin of 1 mm was performed, and the biopsy was sent
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is the determination of the anti-adhesion activity of active compounds extracted from plants in the inhibition of adhesion ability of C. albicans that is used as a virulence factor for infection. Adherence to host surfaces is a primary factor in the colonization of human tissues by fungi, which can also adhere to the surfaces of medical devices and form biofilms. Medicinal plants possess therapeutic properties or beneficial pharmacological effects on the body. A total of one hundred samples were collected from female patients with vaginal infection in two hospitals in Baghdad city for three months. The fungi were isolated and identified by microscopic morphology, morphological features on culture media, and
... Show MoreCoagulation - flocculation are basic chemical engineering method in the treatment of metal-bearing industrial wastewater because it removes colloidal particles, some soluble compounds and very fine solid suspensions initially present in the wastewater by destabilization and formation of flocs. This research was conducted to study the feasibility of using natural coagulant such as okra and mallow and chemical coagulant such as alum for removing Cu and increase the removal efficiency and reduce the turbidity of treated water. Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) was carried out for okra and mallow before and after coagulant to determine their type of functional groups. Carbonyl and hydroxyl functional groups on the surface of
... Show MoreBackground: Adipose derived-mesenchymal stem cells have been used as an alternative to bone marrow cells in this study. Objective: We investigated the in vitro isolation, identification, and differentiation of stem cells into neuron cells, in order to produce neuron cells via cell culture, which would be useful in nerve injury treatment. Method: Mouse adipose mesenchymal stem cells were dissected from the abdominal subcutaneous region. Neural differentiation was induced using β-mercaptoethanol. This study included two different neural stage markers, i.e. nestin and neurofilament light-chain, to detect immature and mature neurons, respectively. Results: The immunocytochemistry results showed that the use of β-mercaptoethanol resulted in
... Show MoreSoil improvement has developed as a realistic solution for enhancing soil properties so that structures can be constructed to meet project engineering requirements due to the limited availability of construction land in urban centers. The jet grouting method for soil improvement is a novel geotechnical alternative for problematic soils for which conventional foundation designs cannot provide acceptable and lasting solutions. The paper's methodology was based on constructing pile models using a low-pressure injection laboratory setup built and made locally to simulate the operation of field equipment. The setup design was based on previous research that systematically conducted unconfined compression testing (U.C.Ts.). Th
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